James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory reported today that they have developed new techniques which show chemical traces of pigments in the feathers of 100-million-year-old birds who lived at the same time as dinosaurs.

The pigment, called eumelanin, is what gives color to hair and eyes in most animals, including humans.

The new technique shows features not apparent in the recent discoveries of melanosomes-- pigment producing structures which implied certain coloration patterns. These new findings are based on X-ray evidence of the pigments themselves, not just the pigment-producing structures.

This is exciting news for dinosaur watchers. So much of our identification of modern birds is based on the way they are colored. It’s as if a few pages of our Field Guide to the Dinosaurs suddenly morphed from x-rays to full-color plates.

Tomorrow we'll be beginning the three-day "Painting in Colored Light" workshop at Garin Baker's Carriage House Art Studios in Newburgh, New York.

The workshop will be held in the gallery room of Garin's renovated carriage house/barn. On his blog, Garin has been describing the vision and effort that went into fixing up the structure, which was in bad repair when he bought it.That's the "before" picture on upper left.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The character of Ophelia was a popular subject with 19th century painters. I’d like to ask you to vote for your favorite image in the poll at left.

In the poll, 678 people cast a vote, and the number of votes for each painting follows each artist's name.

Above: Jules Joseph Lefebvre. 74 votes
If you’re not familiar with Ophelia, she is the tragic young noblewoman in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Her story has it all: beauty, insanity, death—and flowers!

Above: Alexandre Cabanel. 8
Heartbroken by Hamlet’s apparent madness and rejection of her, she gathers wildflowers, climbs a willow, which slants over the river, and falls into the water, where she drowns.

Above: Arthur Hughes 45
She’s generally shown in 19th century paintings with mussed-up hair, a white dress, a garland of flowers, and a wild look in her eyes.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Usually when you take a photograph, you have to select the focal distance and commit to it.

Either the foreground is in focus, or the background is sharp. When you click the shutter, you get one focal setting, and you can’t change it later.

A Silicon Valley start-up company called Lytro has developed a new technology called a “light field camera.” According to the company’s website, it has a completely different lens and capture system, allowing you to take a photograph of a scene and then fiddle with the focus afterward.

Try clicking on different parts of the image below and see the focus change.

Unlike a regular camera, which captures only the light quantities that intersect a single focal plane inside the camera, the light field camera captures the intensity, color, and vector direction of all the rays of light. It replaces many of the internal components of a traditional camera with special software.

We artists tend to paper over the lameness of our work with inflated nonsense. Charlotte Young has done us the favor of deciphering the gobbledegook.
---------Via Boingboing.
Previously: Artist Statement Generator

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Engrossing was a form of artistic writing popular during the Golden Age of Ornamental Penmanship, which flourished from the 1870s to about 1920.

Engrossers created decorative lettering used on resolutions, certificates, testimonials, memorials, and manifestos. The example above is by Patrick W. Costello (1866-1935). Costello’s engrossing work was often executed in limited tones of Payne’s gray or umber.

Engrossers such as Costello, Dennis, and Sickels often used decorative block letters that influenced cartoonists and poster designers of the 1960s.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

On February 23, 1990, a young fantasy artist named Iain McCaig visited my studio, along with my friends Barry Klugerman (center) and James Warhola (seated).

Iain was on his way to California to find work in the movie business. As one of the most able character and creature designers on the planet, he was quickly snapped up by Lucasfilm, where he designed Darth Maul and Padme. Meanwhile, I was just beginning my illustrated book project called Dinotopia. Note the maquette of Treetown on the far left.

Iain pulled out his sketchpad and drew Warhola, Klugerman, and me.

I got out my sketchbook and drew Iain and Klugerman. We became immediate friends, and I’ve been an admirer of him ever since.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Herbert James Draper (1863-1920) was another one of those lesser-known Victorian painters who combined good drawing with a romantic sensibility in his painting of mythological subjects.

He based the painting “Flying Fish” on a charcoal study from a live model. The figure’s pose, with the foreshortened near arm, is delightful. He keeps his tonal masses simple. The light mass is kept light throughout, allowing much of the upper figure to read very delicately as light-against-light.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Many Dinotopia characters went through various stages until I was happy with them. The mountain farmer from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara was one example.
Normally I try to catch problems in the sketch stage, but this time I was nearly finished with the transparent oil rendering when I realized that this character looked too similar to other characters in the book. Also, the potato he was feeding to the dinosaur looked sort of like a rock.

So I took the pose again and repainted him as a bearded man of Russian descent, made his outfit red, and changed the potato to a Burmese turnip. His name Ilya Shinshik evokes my two favorite Russian painters: Ilya Repin and Ivan Shishkin.

When it comes to such corrections, oil is very forgiving. Naturally, I had to restate everything more opaquely and paint white over the parts I needed to cover. But the change only took a day, and the first character was never seen again--until now.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Here are fourteen universal standard lines used verbatim by table servers in the USA.

1. Table for four? (...and until recently: “Smoking or non?”)
2. Can I start you off with something to drink?
3. Our specials today are...”
4. Can I take your order?
5. How would you like that?
6. Your order will be right out.
7. Fresh ground pepper? (Holding grinder over salad) Tell me when.
8. How's everything?
9. Are you still working on that?
10. Can I take that out of your way?
11. Room for dessert?
12. Warm up on your coffee?
13. Are you ready for your check?
14. I’ll take that when you’re ready.

Summer solstice comes to the northern hemisphere on June 21 at 1:16 P.M. Eastern time. Here's a clear explanation of the sun's behavior in relation to the tilted axis of Earth.Direct link to YouTube video

Friday, June 17, 2011

One of the classic books on figure drawing by a master illustrator from the mid-20th century is available again.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth was one of my favorites when I was starting out, and I copied many plates from it. For a long time it was out of print and very expensive. The new edition from Titan books is very well produced with good paper and accurate tonality.